The present invention relates to a skate with improved comfort.
Conventional skates are currently constituted by a shell whereto a quarter is articulated. These skates are usually made of plastics, and a soft innerboot is arranged inside them. A frame for supporting two or more wheels is associated below the shell.
A problem strongly felt by users relates to the dissipation of the heat produced by the foot during sports practice, which usually occurs in case of favorable weather and therefore on predominantly dry surfaces. This has allowed the development of this sport in warmer countries, where the ideal skating conditions last for a considerable time.
The need to use a rigid shell arises from the fact that the shell must on the one hand secure the foot in an optimum manner and on the other hand allow optimum transmission of forces from the foot to the wheels.
This conventional construction, however, clashes with the need to ventilate the foot in order to dissipate the heat produced in excess. U.S. Pat. 5,171,033 discloses a skate with in-line wheels which is composed of a shell and a cuff which are substantially rigid but have holes or openings that allow ventilation of the underlying innerboot and therefore of the foot contained therein.
However, since the closure devices must allow optimum fastening of the shell on the innerboot, the innerboot usually has a certain thickness, required to allow good foot comfort, and therefore ventilation of part of its outer surface does not allow adequate dissipation of the heat generated by the foot.
The thickness of the innerboot, the material it is made of and the fact that the holes or openings cover only a limited region of the shoe further produce, for the foot, regions at differentiated temperatures.
Moreover, there are times during sports practice when the user reduces his speed and therefore the amount of air flowing by the holes or openings decreases and therefore the ventilation effect and the dissipation of the heat produced by the foot also decrease.